Within 15 years, a garbage truck’s worth of plastic could be entering our environment every second. Not every minute. Every second. Plastic is everywhere in modern life and has essential, lifesaving uses, but the proliferation of plastic has also made it one of the great environmental challenges of our time. Plastic pollutes our land, air and water; costs governments billions each year to manage; and is putting human health at increasing risk.
On the current trajectory, the consequences of plastic pollution are far worse than we understood even five years ago. The latest findings by the Pew Charitable Trusts are sobering, but they also chart a clear path forward using solutions that already exist.
The world already creates more plastic than can be effectively managed. And it is on pace to grow plastic production by more than 50% by 2040 — twice the expected increase in waste management capacity over the same period. This means that despite more than $32 billion in additional investment in waste management capacity, plastic production will continue to grow faster than the infrastructure being built to manage it.
And these costs come not just in dollars and cents but also through various health threats linked to plastics — including cancer, heart disease, asthma, decreased fertility and developmental issues. Microplastics have been found throughout people’s bodies, including in placentas alongside fetuses.
The science is mounting on the potential harm from microplastics and the thousands of chemicals that are used in plastic production. Currently, 6 million years of healthy life is being lost each year due to illness, disability or premature death associated with plastic production and waste. These health risks stem primarily from air pollution caused by production facilities or the burning of plastic waste in places that lack the capacity to properly manage it. By 2040, nearly 10 million years of healthy life will be lost per year — and that’s before accounting for any health impacts from the use of plastic products.
However, there is a path to a healthier and cleaner future — a path that transforms the plastic system. With the solutions available today, plastic pollution can be cut by 83% by 2040 and almost eliminated from one of its leading causes: packaging. To that end, governments and companies need to deploy solutions throughout the global plastic system. These solutions’ effectiveness depends on transforming the plastic system by reducing production, improving product and system design, enhancing waste management, and increasing the transparency of the supply chain and its impacts.
This path will require unprecedented collaboration among policymakers, businesses, innovators and communities, and the benefits will be immense. If we commit to this collaboration, in the next 15 years, health impacts will be halved, governments will save billions annually on waste management, and new business opportunities and millions of new jobs — with better pay and better working conditions — will be created as the landscape of jobs shifts from plastic production to collection, recycling and reuse and the creation of substitute materials.
The urgency is real. If we delay action another five years, even more plastic will end up in our air, land and water. This delay would result in billions more being invested in “linear economy” infrastructure — in which products are made, used and thrown away. Instead, those investments could go toward building a “circular economy” — in which materials are reused, recycled or repurposed, keeping them in use for as long as possible and reducing waste.
Putting an end to plastic pollution is a logical choice for our environment, for our health and for our economies.
Winnie Lau leads the Pew Charitable Trusts’ work to end plastic pollution.
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